Panel hears city's eminent domain dispute

A special commission decided Friday that Beaumont should pay a landowner $150,000 for property it seeks to take through eminent domain.

The city wants the land as part of the planned downtown lake, park and events center.

But Eddie Bates, owner of C&I Oil Co., vowed to appeal the decision to a district judge. He either wants more than $600,000 for the property or for the city to let him continue his plan to build a fleet fueling center and car wash.

Bates is one of the last of 22 landowners the city is working with to acquire land for the park project.

Bates owns six lots, about one acre, on Bonham Road near Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Only two of the lots are developed. His family's company began using the land as a bulk fuel center in the late 1950s.

In June, the city offered him $110,000 for the four lots, but he vowed not to sell, causing the city to begin condemnation proceedings.